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briarblues

Can't Leave
Aug 3, 2017
457
924
I think we arranged to have 25 made. They sold out within hours. The thick silver band has Briar Blues 25 and two pipes. The nomenclature on the shank has Radice Italy 41 and hand made, no grade stamps. As far as sizing, they would be around a Dunhill group 5 region.
 

bersekero

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 29, 2023
165
308
Greece
Well I packed a tad tighter and this did the trick. Way more pleasant now. This didn't lead to more relights or higher temperature. Learning something new every day. Thank you again.
 
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PipeIT

Lifer
Nov 14, 2020
5,238
30,887
Hawaii
I broke my new Radice in nicely and carefully but I am still trying to get use to the wide open draw and very small button. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
It is the pipe shown above.

The Radice you just bought, you’re saying you broke it in, in one day? 🤔

It’s always been my understanding even from professional carvers, a break in, is when you’ve achieved a 1 millimeter layer of carbon through out the chamber. It’s impossible to achieve this in one day, briar is to dense.

Of course pipes can smoke great from the first smoke and onwards.

I actually have one Radice, maybe you’ve seen it, my Rind Straight, it’s 2 years old, and by this standard, it’s still not broken in after 2 years. It still hasn’t reached the thickness of 1 millimeter, and where it has built up, it’s also only in 50% of the chamber. This briar is really stubborn to build up the carbon but it still smokes great.

My other Radice you might of seen, my Clear bent Dublin with Baldi Baldi briar, that’s aged over 20 years, I’ve had it 6 months, and it’s also no where near a 1 millimeter layer too.

Professional carvers have told me, until you build this 1 millimeter layer, you want to smoke the pipe easy and not hot, so as to not risk cracks in the chamber, and burn out. So even though a pipe smokes great before a 1 millimeter layer has formed through out, in nice pipes someone cares about, this is also about protection.

But, I have also experienced if you smoke a new pipe before the carbon layer build up, to fast and hot, it can mess up the smoking quality of the pipes. But if someone didn’t push it to hard, with a good cleaning and rest it can come around ok, but for me, I spent several months once to get a pipe back performing nicely after I pushed it to hard.
 
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bersekero

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 29, 2023
165
308
Greece
Thank you for your time to explain all these my friend. Actually the wooden taste went away and the naked briar in the chamber turned to black so I thought it was broken in ...
 
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PipeIT

Lifer
Nov 14, 2020
5,238
30,887
Hawaii
Thank you for your time to explain all these my friend. Actually the wooden smell went away and the naked briar in the chamber turned to black so I thought it was broken in ...

Ahhh ok....

I’m not sure your cleaning methods, but use a paper towel, or napkin and wipe the chamber out after smoking, just don’t use fuzzy paper, you’ll get paper lint stuck inside.

Eventually you’ll start to see the black sticky carbon forming, If you wipe down like this after smoking. Also just after smoking while the chamber is still warm, you can put a drop of drinking water on a finger, and wipe it around inside too sometimes. This helps to keep the carbon layer clean, or easier to then pick out any small leftover tobacco or lint, and you can use a little pressure on your finger and gently smoothen out the carbon for a nice smooth layer.

I use the water like this often...

Just smoke slowly and don’t let the pipe get hot until it builds up.

Enjoy... :)
 

bersekero

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 29, 2023
165
308
Greece
I just wipe the chamber with a paper towel but not always just after smoking.
I will try everything you described. Thanks again!
 

bersekero

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 29, 2023
165
308
Greece
I use the pipe tool to clean the chamber from the ashes and any retaining bad tasting tobacco at the bottom. But I also scratch the walls rather hard and remove the cake. At first I didn't do that to my new savinelli to help the cake build up and after a month the chamber remained half in diameter.
 
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PipeIT

Lifer
Nov 14, 2020
5,238
30,887
Hawaii
I just wipe the chamber with a paper towel but not always just after smoking.
I will try everything you described. Thanks again!

If you dry out your tobacco good, and it all smokes to a nice ash, you should rarely have small, left over tobacco bits. So for this reason, I typically let the pipe cool for a few minutes, that way , when there is a carbon layer, it’s not as sticky to clean.

I have let my Rind Straight sit with a half smoked bowl in it over night, and then smoked it the following day and then cleaned it out. But, I only light my pipe just to take a few sips, then I let it go out and cool down, and then relight when I feel like.

So, it depends on the pipe and smoking style. I just think, if you don’t smoke it fast and hot and care for the pipe when smoking, it can be ok to clean later, ambient conditions also matter.
 

PipeIT

Lifer
Nov 14, 2020
5,238
30,887
Hawaii
I use the pipe tool to clean the chamber from the ashes and any retaining bad tasting tobacco at the bottom. But I also scratch the walls rather hard and remove the cake. At first I didn't do that to my new savinelli to help the cake build up and after a month the chamber remained half in diameter.

Just scoop with the Spoon on like a Czech, don’t scrape with the metal pick, you can scratch up the chamber really bad with it.

If you need to pick and dig, use a wooden toothpick. ;)
 

bersekero

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 29, 2023
165
308
Greece
I see. I am still trying to find out what is the right dryness of the tobacco. Sometimes I let it dry for longer and then it feels way too dry and I feel that I lose the original taste and it has a burnt taste.
 

PipeIT

Lifer
Nov 14, 2020
5,238
30,887
Hawaii
I see. I am still trying to find out what is the right dryness of the tobacco. Sometimes I let it dry for longer and then it feels way too dry and I feel that I lose the original taste and it has a burnt taste.

You just have to experiment, every blend behaves different to dryness.

Slightly drier vs moist, should always give better results.
 
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Sigmund

Lifer
Sep 17, 2023
3,178
30,783
France
Im fairly new to this as well. Aim for more dry than you think. Pack more lose than you think you should. Think about changing your thoughts about "Tamping" to "Compressing". Its easy to kill the fire by actually tamping. You want to feed the fire, not stomp on it.
 

Searock Fan

Lifer
Oct 22, 2021
2,227
6,102
Southern U.S.A.
Strangely enough, with my love for high grade Italian pipes I don't have a single Radice in my collection. I do however have a 1970s Caminetto that is stamped, ASCORTI, RADICE, CUCCUAGO, CANTU ITALY on one side and the other side CAMINETTO, BUSINESS. Like all pipes made by these guys it smokes like a dream. By the color of the side panel you can tell what it looked like when new, The bowl is now almost completely black from a lot of great smokes. puffy

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